Anne Survivor

I am Anne, a cervicalcancer survivor from the Netherlands. And I cannot for the life of me find a blog thats about this. So why not start one?

On october 5 2023 I went to the doctor about abnormal bleeding that went on for about 2 weeks. She examined me, and could tell me i problably have cervicalcancer.

So the machine started, I went to the hospital and they could tell me I had a chance of 80% that the news would be bad. But we had to wait 1 week for the final results.

I can tell you, we hanged on that other 20% for dear life!

But yeah.. a week after i heard the definite news. The biops were bad.. i had cancer.

I have a scar going from my belly button all the way down to *you-know-where*. First 2 weeks where fine, 1 week at the hospital and 1 week at home.

Had my first post-checkup. They told me my scar "looked good". But they also had some bad news.. 😢

The removed 27 lymph nodes, 1 of them was infected with my cancer.. So in about 4 to 5 weeks i had to start chemo and radiation. 5 times chemotherapy and 25 times radiation therapy..

After that week i felt something.. don't really know how to describe it.. it felt like a couple of pangs.. like my inner sutures where letting go.

And sure, why not. The first complication. I had a open belly wound, not in 1 place, but i had 4 (!!) open holes in my lower belly.

Went to the hospital about 3 times. All around christmas, one of them even poked around with a surgical cotton swab. The wound even became bigger because of that. So that sucked..

You have to check in the evening before, so i was crying all the way to the hospital.. couldn't even say goodbye to my dear kittens, it hurt to much..

Went under the knife at 7 in the morning, woke up about 3 o clock in the afternoon. They tried to give me an experimental epidural, but that didn't work so a bit of a panic because i couldn't feel my feet.. thats sucks by the way. Waking up and not feeling anything below your bellybutton.. got other painkillers and another hour of I don't remember anymore..

Meanwhile, hubby was panicking because they told him that I was out of surgery about noon.. It was 5 hours later that I came back to my room.. hungry as f**k!! Didn't eat for about 23 hours! They didn't give me anything until around 7..

Than came a week in hospital.. No real complications, but there was rude staff in the building! It sucked..

After that came the talks at the hospital, "do you want kids?" No. "Do you want to freeze your eggs?" No. "Do you..." can we just take all the cancer-shit out of my body and can you just accept that I dont want kids and put all of my 'motherly love' in the kids that i teach? "Fine."

Than came the waiting game. Just waiting forever.. I hated it.. 2 months with parties just to celebrate life, because we'll never know.

Around the time i got my diagnoses I became a member of the friends of Baroeg (Vrienden van Baroeg), a podium for the arts in the south of Rotterdam. I've never been happier to be part of a group of people, they supported me through every step and checking in every so often. Even 2 years later, they support and accept me in every way!

Love you all! 🩷💙💜

(Next time, operation and futher treatment.)